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Mature virtual reality (VR) technology offers significant economic advantages for application 
in management contexts and is presumed to become the standard interface of the future. However,
a holistic assessment of the potential benefits implied by the adoption of VR requires the
inclusion of concepts for the quantification and quality of user experience as the user is identified
as key resource for operational performance and main determinant for the efficiency assessment
of a virtual environment (VE). Important concepts comprise presence and user experience.
Through the constant overflow of information in the digital world, humans have limited spans
of attention and ability to focus. Thus, greater complexity, amount of objects and pictorial
realism are believed to decrease the perceived efficiency of a VE, through higher distraction
and more non-task-relevant stimuli, though it is assumed to increase presence and user experience.
A gap in current literature is identified in the simultaneous examination of visual realism
and scene complexity with presence and user experience. Moreover, current literature has
not been found to cover the possibly resulting distractive influence of higher scene complexity
on the quality of the VE experience in regard to task performance.
The main goal of this thesis is to provide a sound assessment of the adoption of virtual reality
in management based on both pragmatic and user-related criteria. Within a case study of a
between-groups design 25 participants executed a search-task inside an immersive VE with a
HMD and filled both pre- and post-questionnaires to examine the effect of scene complexity
and visual realism on the perception of presence and convenience of users, measured by user
experience.
Results show significant higher levels of naturalness for high realism and scene complexity
(lasergrammetric scan) and significantly higher negative effects. Moreover it is perceived
more distractive as it detracts specific user attention from the task onto the general VE. Taskrelated
quality is perceived lower and non-task-related hedonic quality is significantly higher
for the simplified environment (3D model).
Results underline the relevance of subjective measures to qualify and quantify user experience
in VEs and point out the importance of user-centred design to enhance VE efficiency and performance.

Virtual Reality --- Presence --- User experience --- Realism --- Management Application --- Scene complexity --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Gestion des systèmes d'information --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Production, distribution & gestion de la chaîne logistique --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Stratégie & innovation --- Ingénierie, informatique & technologie > Sciences informatiques